The History of Philadelphia's Sewage System (1681- present)
Mill Creek Sewer under construction at 47th and Haverford, 1883 Philadelphia Water Department
From its establishment as a port and place for government in 1681 until the present, Philadelphia has been the home to millions. William Penn’s design for Philadelphia to be a rural town quickly changed as its port became a popular trading center. As the city became more crowded, living conditions deteriorated and there became a need for public services. One of the largest achievements was the Philadelphia Waterworks, the United States first municipal waterworks, established in the 1820’s following a violent plague of yellow fever. At this time the city’s sewage was dumped in to the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers with little regard for its consequence. Though the waterworks provided drinking water for the city, the water was contaminated with sewage but the clear need for a separate sewage treatment system would not be addressed until years later.
It wasn’t until several decades later that waste disposal was realized as a critical issue because of the outbreak of typhoid fever and cholera, two epidemics caused by contaminated drinking water. In the 19th century the city began building a water treatment plant. At that time both the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers were so contaminated with industrial and residential waste that both were teeming with black sewage and were uninhabitable. The public’s demand for healthier streams and drinking water, the American societies movement towards more environmental protection and the city’s ambition to be a prominent economic hub led to the development of the almost 3,000 mile sewage system of Philadelphia today. This article will explore the development of a sewage system in Philadelphia from the first creek enclosure to the current digital analyzer technology used at Philadelphia’s multiple waste treatment facilities.
In the 17th century Philadelphia began its progression from natural woodlands to agricultural farming. The rural town quickly expanded into a popular port center and by 1701 Philadelphia was established as a city. The growing population caused creeks and river beds to become overtaken by sewage from the city’s inhabitants. Concern over clean drinking water came to a head with the 1673 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia which caused the death of 10% of the population, approximately 5,000 people. At this time sewage was mixed with drinking water because little was known about the correlation between clean drinking water and the spread of disease. Following the yellow fever epidemics the city appointed a Water Committee which eventually led to development of the Fairmount Waterworks, established in 1822 as the United States first municipal waterworks.
An example of this urban sprawl can be seen in the transformation of Mill Creek into an underground sewer, and the subsequent transformation of Cobbs Creek to its north. Cobbs Creek was used for water power for numerous textile, paper-making, and flour mills throughout the 19th century. A gunpowder manufacturing center was found in Haverford Township along the creek, as well as saw, grist, and snuff mills (2). The transformation of Mill Creek into a cistern was completed in the 1880s, causing many transformations to occur in the watershed. Developers saw the need for more housing for the expanding city and the leveling of the ground above the sewage system allowed for the construction of row-homes which had previously been hindered due to the creek. Development in the direction of Cobbs Creek was now unimpeded due to the construction of the sewage line, and aided by the construction of the Market-Frankford Elevated Railroad.
As seen in the figures above, many creeks became culverts because the least expensive, most energy efficient way to design a sewage system is to follow the natural flow of water. Because of this many of the once flourishing creeks and streams are now underground sewers.
Peak of Contamination (1825 – 1900)
The end of pollution was still not in sight. With little knowledge regarding the effects of waste from dye houses, cow stables, slaughterhouses, kitchens, street-sewage, and factories, the creeks and streams had become black sewage. Streams ran a muck with pollution in the mid-19th century because of many textile and dyeing houses, as well as paper-making factories.
The Frankford Creek, which originated in Cheltenham Township, meandered eastward before finally darting south into Philadelphia, had become riddled with black sewage and industrial waste. The dangerous disease which lurked in these waterways caused the city to devise a plan to cover the sewage passageways. Beginning in the 1880s, the preliminary drainage maps were drawn, which covered approximately 129 square miles. The creeks and streams became culverts, or totally enclosed underground sewers. One of the largest local conversions was Mill Creek, which took over 25 years to convert into a sewage system.
Samuel Kneass, Philadelphia's City Surveyor, advised natural watersheds should be used for city drainage with little knowledge of its future environmental implications. The city’s sewage project was also run by Strickland Kneass, brother of Samual Kneass, who also proved very passionate about engineering the city’s sewage system (3). His difficulties arose when he became Philadelphia’s Chief Engineer and Surveyor in 1855 because of the crime and corruption which were rampant in Philadelphia’s politics. It was not until years after he left office in 1872 that his recommendations were implemented because of the city’s poor political machine.
As the growing city expanded the anticipated need for a sewage system was recognized and the developers planned accordingly. Sewage systems were mostly built through farmland because of the low cost of paying out land damages. This also allowed an even sewer grid to be created and the land to be easily bought and developed into residential communities. Roads were paved on top of the sewage lines so the houses would be unaffected if a sewage pipe were to be damaged.
Reversing the Damage (1900 – 1940)
"Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink"
Editorial cartoon from the Philadelphia Record
March 14, 1937
The damage to the waterways caused by lack of sewage treatment as well as the heavy waste from local factories caused a public health calamity. Newspapers from the early 20th century show the city’s disgust with the polluted Schuylkill and Delaware River’s. In 1905 a law was passed protecting the city’s waters from pollution, which led to the “Report on the Collection and Treatment of the Sewage of the City of Philadelphia” in 1914.
Although by the 1930s most of the mills and factories had left the watershed, their pollution remained in the waters of the Schuylkill and Delaware River’s. Philadelphia’s port in the Delaware River was so saturated with hydrogen sulfide that sailors were sickened and any metal on the waterfront was corroded. Advancements in medicine had linked the spread of epidemic diseases such as yellow and typhoid fever to impure drinking water, and deaths from typhoid fever drastically dropped a decade into the turn of the century (figure below). Water treatments had advanced, and chlorination provided the city with drinkable water, but the city had still not established a clear solution for treating the city’s sewage.
(Picture from Philadelphia City Archives)
In the early 20th century plans for a Northeast sewage treatment plant were approved but the efforts were stopped with the onset of World War I in 1914. All labor and materials used to build the first treatment plant in Northeast Philadelphia were diverted to help the war effort, and then following the war the plant opened in 1923. The Great Depression also halted most public works for the 1930s. In the early 20th century city planners were also beginning to realize the benefit of parks and rivers but it had come too late as most had already been converted into sewage systems.
Newer Technologies (1940 – Present)
WWII also restricted labor and materials, and thus in the 1940s Philadelphia functioned on 1,800 miles of sewers and one small plant treating only 15 percent of Philadelphia’s sewage flow. The remaining sewage entered waterways, mainly the Delaware River. In order to properly fund the much needed sewage projects a sewers rent, a charge for the use of sewers, was established in 1945, and since has allowed the sewage system to function completely funded by water and sewer user fees.
The early 1950s marked the completion of the Southeast and Southwest plants, as well as revamping of the Northeast plant. Collector or interceptor sewers were finally completed by 1966. By 1969, and the Earth Day movement Americans had realized the harmful effects various pollution on the environment and demanded that the river’s of Philadelphia be cleaned of sewage and waste. By the 1970s Philadelphia committed to diverting massive waste from the Schuylkill River to sewage treatment plants and today the river is once again swimmable and contains enough dissolved oxygen to be inhabited by aquatic life.
The 19th century engineers could not have foreseen the advancements in sewage technology with the three treatment plants now treating an average of 471 million gallons of Philadelphia’s sewage every day (12). They also could not have foreseen the advancements in materials science upstaging their primitive brick and concrete sewers. In 1961, portions of the Mill Creek sewer collapsed destroying several homes. Now the concern lies in how to deal with the aging sewage system in which many portions are over 100 years old, as well as how to support Philadelphia’s growing population of over 1.4 million(1).
(borrowed from phillyh2o.org)
Currently the sewage system consist of 3,000 miles of sewer lines which range from 8-inch terra cotta pipes to 24-foot concrete conduits and collect waste and storm water from 500,000 homes and businesses. Today the larger sewers are made of reinforced concrete, while the smallest sewers, laterals which carry flow from homes and businesses, are made of prefabricated concrete. A portion of Philadelphia’s sewer lines combine stormwater and sanitary waste in one line to be sent to a water pollution control plant, while the remaining sewage is separated from the stormwater by a separate system. This allows storm water to be transported to a stream through a storm sewer.
During heavy storms the sewage system overflows requiring it to be diverted into local streams and rivers so that it does not flood the streets. The Philadelphia Water Department has realized the concerns this raises as pollution and debris are diverted into our waterways. To control this problem they have developed the Long Term Control Plan for Combined Sewer Overflows, whose goal is to keep the watersheds natural, healthy, and beautiful. This plan reflects the great changes the sewage system has undergone. As the public became more aware of health and environmental concerns they demanded that their sewage not detract from the health of streams and watersheds. The public’s concern for sanitation and the environment is directly reflected in this development.
The Philadelphia Water Department’s Wastewater Control Regulations stem from the outrageous pollution the local rivers and streams had seen during the Industrial Revolution. Technology has allowed us to identify pollutants which were unidentified when the sewer system was first created. This awareness has led to the polluted waste regulations. Congress became involved during the Earth Day revolution and now the city is held to several strict water pollution control laws.
In order to look towards the future of our sewage system we must look to the past to see how we have shaped this technology and how it has shaped us. As the city grew waste disposal became an issue. Engineers at the time saw the perfect solution was to turn the creeks and streams into culverts so the sewage would run naturally into the main waterways. When this deteriorated the main rivers a new strategy was developed to treat the sewage waste. Society has taken a further shift towards environmental awareness and the waste treatment plants which run on petroleum and the sewage-stormwater systems which occasionally flood due to heavy rain are no longer acceptable. Now, engineers must develop new improved technologies to deal with ‘greener’ cultural changes.
Sources Primary
(1) //2007 listing of population estimates of U.S. cities// by theUnited States Census Bureau Retrieved on February 8, 2009.
(2) Report of a Sanitary Survey of the Schuylkill Valleyby Dana C. Barber, Assistant Engineer. Philadelphia Water Department, February 28, 1885. <http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/Schuylkill_Archive/Schuylkill_SanSurvey1884.pdf> Retrieved March 5, 2009.
(3) Report from the Chief Commissioner of Highways, Department of Public Highways, May 12th, 1855. <http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/Bureau_Surveys_PDFs/BSAR_1855.pdf> Retrieved February 27, 2009.
(4) "Purity of Water and Hydrographical Survey of the Schuylkill River . Two excerpts from the Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Water Department of the City of Philadelphia, Henry P. M. Birkinbine, presented to Councils Jan. 31, 1867. Pages 60-67." <http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/Schuylkill_1866Survey.htm >
(5) Paulachok, Gary. "Water-table map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1976-1980 / by Gary N. Paulachok and Charles R. Wood ; prepared in cooperation with the city of Philadelphia Water Department." Map. [Washington] : U.S. Geological Survey, 1984.
(6) Typhoid fever death chart, 1886-1942. The Philadelphia City Archives.
(7) Velnich, A.J. Drainage areas in New Jersey : Delaware River Basin and streams tributary to Delaware Bay / by Anthony J. Velnich ; prepared in cooperation with the United States Army, Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water Resources. Trenton, N.J. : U.S. Dept. of Interior, Geological Survey, [1982].
From its establishment as a port and place for government in 1681 until the present, Philadelphia has been the home to millions. William Penn’s design for Philadelphia to be a rural town quickly changed as its port became a popular trading center. As the city became more crowded, living conditions deteriorated and there became a need for public services. One of the largest achievements was the Philadelphia Waterworks, the United States first municipal waterworks, established in the 1820’s following a violent plague of yellow fever. At this time the city’s sewage was dumped in to the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers with little regard for its consequence. Though the waterworks provided drinking water for the city, the water was contaminated with sewage but the clear need for a separate sewage treatment system would not be addressed until years later.
It wasn’t until several decades later that waste disposal was realized as a critical issue because of the outbreak of typhoid fever and cholera, two epidemics caused by contaminated drinking water. In the 19th century the city began building a water treatment plant. At that time both the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers were so contaminated with industrial and residential waste that both were teeming with black sewage and were uninhabitable. The public’s demand for healthier streams and drinking water, the American societies movement towards more environmental protection and the city’s ambition to be a prominent economic hub led to the development of the almost 3,000 mile sewage system of Philadelphia today. This article will explore the development of a sewage system in Philadelphia from the first creek enclosure to the current digital analyzer technology used at Philadelphia’s multiple waste treatment facilities.
Table of Contents
City’s Establishment (1681 – 1825)
Peak of Contamination (1825 – 1900)
Reversing the Damage (1900 – 1940)
Newer Technologies (1940 – Present)
City’s Establishment (1681 – 1825)
In the 17th century Philadelphia began its progression from natural woodlands to agricultural farming. The rural town quickly expanded into a popular port center and by 1701 Philadelphia was established as a city. The growing population caused creeks and river beds to become overtaken by sewage from the city’s inhabitants. Concern over clean drinking water came to a head with the 1673 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia which caused the death of 10% of the population, approximately 5,000 people. At this time sewage was mixed with drinking water because little was known about the correlation between clean drinking water and the spread of disease. Following the yellow fever epidemics the city appointed a Water Committee which eventually led to development of the Fairmount Waterworks, established in 1822 as the United States first municipal waterworks.
An example of this urban sprawl can be seen in the transformation of Mill Creek into an underground sewer, and the subsequent transformation of Cobbs Creek to its north. Cobbs Creek was used for water power for numerous textile, paper-making, and flour mills throughout the 19th century. A gunpowder manufacturing center was found in Haverford Township along the creek, as well as saw, grist, and snuff mills (2). The transformation of Mill Creek into a cistern was completed in the 1880s, causing many transformations to occur in the watershed. Developers saw the need for more housing for the expanding city and the leveling of the ground above the sewage system allowed for the construction of row-homes which had previously been hindered due to the creek. Development in the direction of Cobbs Creek was now unimpeded due to the construction of the sewage line, and aided by the construction of the Market-Frankford Elevated Railroad.
As seen in the figures above, many creeks became culverts because the least expensive, most energy efficient way to design a sewage system is to follow the natural flow of water. Because of this many of the once flourishing creeks and streams are now underground sewers.
Peak of Contamination (1825 – 1900)
The end of pollution was still not in sight. With little knowledge regarding the effects of waste from dye houses, cow stables, slaughterhouses, kitchens, street-sewage, and factories, the creeks and streams had become black sewage. Streams ran a muck with pollution in the mid-19th century because of many textile and dyeing houses, as well as paper-making factories.
The Frankford Creek, which originated in Cheltenham Township, meandered eastward before finally darting south into Philadelphia, had become riddled with black sewage and industrial waste. The dangerous disease which lurked in these waterways caused the city to devise a plan to cover the sewage passageways. Beginning in the 1880s, the preliminary drainage maps were drawn, which covered approximately 129 square miles. The creeks and streams became culverts, or totally enclosed underground sewers. One of the largest local conversions was Mill Creek, which took over 25 years to convert into a sewage system.
Samuel Kneass, Philadelphia's City Surveyor, advised natural watersheds should be used for city drainage with little knowledge of its future environmental implications. The city’s sewage project was also run by Strickland Kneass, brother of Samual Kneass, who also proved very passionate about engineering the city’s sewage system (3). His difficulties arose when he became Philadelphia’s Chief Engineer and Surveyor in 1855 because of the crime and corruption which were rampant in Philadelphia’s politics. It was not until years after he left office in 1872 that his recommendations were implemented because of the city’s poor political machine.
As the growing city expanded the anticipated need for a sewage system was recognized and the developers planned accordingly. Sewage systems were mostly built through farmland because of the low cost of paying out land damages. This also allowed an even sewer grid to be created and the land to be easily bought and developed into residential communities. Roads were paved on top of the sewage lines so the houses would be unaffected if a sewage pipe were to be damaged.
Reversing the Damage (1900 – 1940)
"Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink"
Editorial cartoon from the Philadelphia Record
March 14, 1937
The damage to the waterways caused by lack of sewage treatment as well as the heavy waste from local factories caused a public health calamity. Newspapers from the early 20th century show the city’s disgust with the polluted Schuylkill and Delaware River’s. In 1905 a law was passed protecting the city’s waters from pollution, which led to the “Report on the Collection and Treatment of the Sewage of the City of Philadelphia” in 1914.
Although by the 1930s most of the mills and factories had left the watershed, their pollution remained in the waters of the Schuylkill and Delaware River’s. Philadelphia’s port in the Delaware River was so saturated with hydrogen sulfide that sailors were sickened and any metal on the waterfront was corroded. Advancements in medicine had linked the spread of epidemic diseases such as yellow and typhoid fever to impure drinking water, and deaths from typhoid fever drastically dropped a decade into the turn of the century (figure below). Water treatments had advanced, and chlorination provided the city with drinkable water, but the city had still not established a clear solution for treating the city’s sewage.
In the early 20th century plans for a Northeast sewage treatment plant were approved but the efforts were stopped with the onset of World War I in 1914. All labor and materials used to build the first treatment plant in Northeast Philadelphia were diverted to help the war effort, and then following the war the plant opened in 1923. The Great Depression also halted most public works for the 1930s. In the early 20th century city planners were also beginning to realize the benefit of parks and rivers but it had come too late as most had already been converted into sewage systems.
Newer Technologies (1940 – Present)
WWII also restricted labor and materials, and thus in the 1940s Philadelphia functioned on 1,800 miles of sewers and one small plant treating only 15 percent of Philadelphia’s sewage flow. The remaining sewage entered waterways, mainly the Delaware River. In order to properly fund the much needed sewage projects a sewers rent, a charge for the use of sewers, was established in 1945, and since has allowed the sewage system to function completely funded by water and sewer user fees.
The early 1950s marked the completion of the Southeast and Southwest plants, as well as revamping of the Northeast plant. Collector or interceptor sewers were finally completed by 1966. By 1969, and the Earth Day movement Americans had realized the harmful effects various pollution on the environment and demanded that the river’s of Philadelphia be cleaned of sewage and waste. By the 1970s Philadelphia committed to diverting massive waste from the Schuylkill River to sewage treatment plants and today the river is once again swimmable and contains enough dissolved oxygen to be inhabited by aquatic life.
The 19th century engineers could not have foreseen the advancements in sewage technology with the three treatment plants now treating an average of 471 million gallons of Philadelphia’s sewage every day (12). They also could not have foreseen the advancements in materials science upstaging their primitive brick and concrete sewers. In 1961, portions of the Mill Creek sewer collapsed destroying several homes. Now the concern lies in how to deal with the aging sewage system in which many portions are over 100 years old, as well as how to support Philadelphia’s growing population of over 1.4 million(1).
Currently the sewage system consist of 3,000 miles of sewer lines which range from 8-inch terra cotta pipes to 24-foot concrete conduits and collect waste and storm water from 500,000 homes and businesses. Today the larger sewers are made of reinforced concrete, while the smallest sewers, laterals which carry flow from homes and businesses, are made of prefabricated concrete. A portion of Philadelphia’s sewer lines combine stormwater and sanitary waste in one line to be sent to a water pollution control plant, while the remaining sewage is separated from the stormwater by a separate system. This allows storm water to be transported to a stream through a storm sewer.
During heavy storms the sewage system overflows requiring it to be diverted into local streams and rivers so that it does not flood the streets. The Philadelphia Water Department has realized the concerns this raises as pollution and debris are diverted into our waterways. To control this problem they have developed the Long Term Control Plan for Combined Sewer Overflows, whose goal is to keep the watersheds natural, healthy, and beautiful. This plan reflects the great changes the sewage system has undergone. As the public became more aware of health and environmental concerns they demanded that their sewage not detract from the health of streams and watersheds. The public’s concern for sanitation and the environment is directly reflected in this development.
The Philadelphia Water Department’s Wastewater Control Regulations stem from the outrageous pollution the local rivers and streams had seen during the Industrial Revolution. Technology has allowed us to identify pollutants which were unidentified when the sewer system was first created. This awareness has led to the polluted waste regulations. Congress became involved during the Earth Day revolution and now the city is held to several strict water pollution control laws.
In order to look towards the future of our sewage system we must look to the past to see how we have shaped this technology and how it has shaped us. As the city grew waste disposal became an issue. Engineers at the time saw the perfect solution was to turn the creeks and streams into culverts so the sewage would run naturally into the main waterways. When this deteriorated the main rivers a new strategy was developed to treat the sewage waste. Society has taken a further shift towards environmental awareness and the waste treatment plants which run on petroleum and the sewage-stormwater systems which occasionally flood due to heavy rain are no longer acceptable. Now, engineers must develop new improved technologies to deal with ‘greener’ cultural changes.
Sources
Primary
(1) //2007 listing of population estimates of U.S. cities// by the United States Census Bureau Retrieved on February 8, 2009.
(2) Report of a Sanitary Survey of the Schuylkill Valley by Dana C. Barber, Assistant Engineer. Philadelphia Water Department, February 28, 1885. <http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/Schuylkill_Archive/Schuylkill_SanSurvey1884.pdf> Retrieved March 5, 2009.
(3) Report from the Chief Commissioner of Highways, Department of Public Highways, May 12th, 1855. <http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/Bureau_Surveys_PDFs/BSAR_1855.pdf> Retrieved February 27, 2009.
(4) "Purity of Water and Hydrographical Survey of the Schuylkill River . Two excerpts from the Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Water Department of the City of Philadelphia, Henry P. M. Birkinbine, presented to Councils Jan. 31, 1867. Pages 60-67." <http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/Schuylkill_1866Survey.htm >
(5) Paulachok, Gary. "Water-table map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1976-1980 / by Gary N. Paulachok and Charles R. Wood ; prepared in cooperation with the city of Philadelphia Water Department." Map. [Washington] : U.S. Geological Survey, 1984.
(6) Typhoid fever death chart, 1886-1942. The Philadelphia City Archives.
(7) Velnich, A.J. Drainage areas in New Jersey : Delaware River Basin and streams tributary to Delaware Bay / by Anthony J. Velnich ; prepared in cooperation with the United States Army, Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water Resources. Trenton, N.J. : U.S. Dept. of Interior, Geological Survey, [1982].
Secondary
(8) Clean Water Act (CWA). 20 Jan. 2009. US EPA. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/lcwa.html>.
(9) Contagous Disease Control. City of Philadelphia. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://www.phila.gov/Health/Commissioner/History/ContagiousDiseaseControl.html>.
(10) Levine, Adam. The History of Philadelphia's Watersheds and Sewers. 12 Feb. 2009. Http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/MSB_Water.htm.
(11) The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. 14 Mar. 2009 <http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/home/index.html>.
(12) Urban Water Cycle. Philadelphia Water Department. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://www.phila.gov/water/urban_water_cycle.html>.
Reference
(13) Philadelphia. Wikipedia. 22 Jan. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia>..> Retrieved February 28, 2009.